Surface velocity map of the Afar Rift Zone from 2014-19

This dataset contains a map of ground movements covering the Afar Rift Zone in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti for the time period between October 2014 and August 2019. The Afar region is located where three tectonic plates are pulling apart, creating rift segments which are 50-100 km long. Surface deformation on these segments is not constant in time, with episodes of rifting occurring periodically and magma intrusions causing sudden ground movements. We use frequent Sentinel-1 satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) observations to measure surface displacements through time across the whole region. We relate these to ground based Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) observations and combine data from different satellite tracks to produce maps of the average surface velocity in three directions (perpendicular to the rift zone, parallel to the rift zone, and vertical). The continued observation of these time-varying ground movements is important for understanding how continents break up, with data here providing evidence of how tightly focussed extension is around the rift segments and of the subsurface magma movement at several volcanic centres.

Date (Publication): 2021-09-29T09:40:39

Date (Creation): 2021-09-29T09:40:39

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/ac43cee2bf5e4942970492209ba95e49

Citation identifier: NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis / ac43cee2bf5e4942970492209ba95e49

Citation identifier: doi / 10.5285/ac43cee2bf5e4942970492209ba95e49

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Unavailable	Moore, Chris	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Wright, Tim	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Hooper, Andrew	Unavailable	Author
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Custodian
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor
Unavailable	Hooper, Andrew	Unavailable	Principal investigator
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	pointofContact
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Unknown

Update scope: Dataset

Keywords

Sentinel-1
InSAR
GNSS
velocity
map

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

orthoimagery

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Public data: access to these data is available to both registered and non-registered users.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Under the following licence http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/, appropriate use of these data may fall under any use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Spatial representation type: Grid

Language: English

Topic category

Imagery base maps earth cover

Begin date: 2014-10-11T00:00:00

End date: 2019-08-17T23:59:59

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

Distribution format

Name	Version
Data are netCDF formatted.

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/ac43cee2bf5e4942970492209ba95e49	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/neodc/surface_velocities_afar_rift/data/	DOWNLOAD

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JB021542	Related paper: Rift Focussing and Magmatism During Late-Stage Rifting in Afar C. Moore,T. J. Wright,A. Hooper, 2021

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Statement: Sentinel-1 Single Look Complex (SLC) data were sourced from the European Space Agency (ESA) Copernicus Hub, and processed using LiCSAR software (Lazecky et al., 2020). Processing and analysis was then performed by the authors (University of Leeds, COMET) in MATLAB to account for atmospheric effects, estimate uncertainties, create deformation time series and average velocity maps, reference surface velocities to the regional GNSS network (King et al., 2019), and convert velocities from the satellite look direction into rift-perpendicular and rift-parallel horizontal and vertical components. Final velocity maps and variance estimates were exported to NetCDF format for archiving. Data were produced by the project team and supplied for archiving at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA).

Metadata

File identifier: ac43cee2bf5e4942970492209ba95e49 XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Date stamp: 2026-02-25T03:21:05

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Point of contact

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